12 



GROWING GOLD. 



and the author. The owners of landed pro- 

 perty, as growers and consumers, and all con- 

 sumers of timber, are the judges. When any 

 person is courageous enough to condemn a 

 general practice, he is sure to encounter a 

 large share of opposition, if not odium, from 

 all who are concerned in that practice ; but 

 the gratification of being able to perform an 

 important public duty ; that of demonstrating 

 the means by which the nation can be ma- 

 terially benefited, is a sufficient shield against 

 the official spleen with which the author will, 

 doubtless, be assailed. 



A nation, whose boundary is the sea shore, 

 must ever be a large consumer of timber for 

 shipping, and the considerable rise of the price 

 of which must be an additional tax to the 

 country, on every extensive repair or increase 

 of the royal navy, and also be an increasing 

 charge upon every article exported and im- 

 ported, in the shape of higher rate of tonage, 

 for the conveyance of every kind of goods by 

 our merchant vessels. Nay, the high price of 



